Hard quarantine didn’t stop Brady in Australia; Osaka did

Jennifer Brady’s 15 days in hard quarantine did not derail her at the Australian Open. She made it all the way to her first Grand Slam final. But Naomi Osaka was just too good at the most important moments in the title match and beat Brady 6-4, 6-3. Brady is a 25-year-old American whose career record in the main draw at Melbourne Park was 3-3 until this year. That included first-round losses in 2018 and 2020 and failing to make it through qualifying in 2019. But she has come quite far and has shown she can compete with the upper echelon of tennis.